Churchill Downs

Bob Clancy's selections for four graded stakes races Saturday at Saratoga Race Course: Bernard Baruch Handicap (Grade 2) Post time: 3:15 p.m.; Distance: 1 1/16 miles (turf); Purse: $250,000 BOISTEROUS (5-1) turns back after being outfinished in the 1 1/2-mile Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont on July 12; Grade 1 winner, coupled in the wagering with Bio Pro, has been training well and is batting .500 at the distance. WISE DAN (3-5) is obviously the most accomplished horse in this field of nine; two-time Horse of the Year might be vulnerable in first start since his colic surgery in May. SAYAAD (6-1) must be respected because of his speed. The Prioress (Grade 2) Post time: 5...

To the extent that such events can be fixed in time, the moment Mayor Philip A. Giordano's obsession with sex jumped from back-alley gossip to pressing political business occurred at the end of a corny downtown Christmas pageant. Giordano backers, the...

I travel the world, drinking. Along the way, I learn exactly how drinks that rule the world are made. I've sipped and swirled Champagne and Cognac in France, Guinness in Dublin and Scotch in — where else — Scotland. And although whiskeys are produced...

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Apparently, they don't call themselves "Dumbass Partners" for nothing.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn, who hails from Nevada, would choose to double down on the incendiary comments...

With a strong wind at his back as he came through the Belmont Park stretch, Triple Crown hopeful California Chrome breezed a half-mile in 47.69 seconds Saturday morning in his final serious move before the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on Saturday....

"Since Affirmed in 1978" — it has to be the most overused phrase in thoroughbred racing.
And yet it's inevitable every spring, when a new crop of 3-year-olds takes a shot at the sport's most cherished prize — the Triple Crown.
Affirmed was the...

A half mile into Saturday's Preakness Stakes, Victor Espinoza had to make a decision.
Several speedy challengers had dashed in from the outside, quickening the pace on his horse — Kentucky Derby champion California Chrome. Should Espinoza accelerate...

Todd Pletcher arrived at his Pimlico paddock this morning to find his filly, Stopchargingmaria, full of energy. Coming off disappointing performances in her two races this year, Pletcher didn't know what his amped-up horse would deliver.
It went about as...

The call to post for the Preakness Stakes will be as follows:
No. 1. Dynamic Impact (12-1 morning line odds) — Has won two of his three races this year and will be ridden by first-time Preakness jockey Miguel Mena.
No. 2. General A Rod (15-1) — His...

For the longest time, Graham Motion couldn't figure out what he had in Ring Weekend.
The horse was talented, for sure. A son of Tapit, the nation's leading sire, he quickly adapted to his workouts as a 2-year-old. But he could be difficult to handle....

Confidence ran high in the Kentucky Derby champion.
Bred for stamina by one of America's grand old racing families and fine-tuned by one of the sport's most respected trainers, Orb went off as a commanding 3-5 favorite in the 2013 Preakness.
Two minutes...

Throughout the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby, California Chrome’s co-owner predicted victory to anyone who’d listen, saying he felt it from his gut and his heart.
Coburn, wearing his trademark cowboy hat, sang the same confident tune Wednesday...

Before California Chrome could even reach his nose across the finish line in the Kentucky Derby, the chestnut colt’s exercise rider, Willie Delgado, received a text from his biggest fan back home.
“Daddy, I can’t believe you just won the Kentucky Derby,”...

California Chrome has a bit of Hollywood in him.
Just a few steps into his first afternoon at Pimlico Race Course on Monday, the Kentucky Derby champion stopped and posed regally before a pack of photographers click, click, clicking. The handsome...

California Chrome did what he was supposed to do at the Kentucky Derby, running the exact race his trainer and jockey envisioned as other contenders found trouble around him.
As a result, the only horse with a flawless resume entering the first leg of...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Art Sherman reached the barn at 5 a.m. Sunday, the day after the Kentucky Derby, he found his star pupil still slumbering.
“I didn’t want to wake him up,” he said of California Chrome, the newly garlanded champion of Churchill...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The aftermath of California Chrome's stirring victory should have brought nothing but joy to the pilot of the ship, jockey Victor Espinoza.
He had, after all, won his second Kentucky Derby. His first was aboard War Emblem in 2002.
He...

LOUISVILLE, KY. — Art Sherman looked dazed, perhaps still a bit uncertain that fate had handed him such a magnificent gift after six decades of devotion to racehorses.
A few feet away, Steve Coburn's voice caught with emotion as he spoke of those who...

Horse racing, the most unpredictable of sports, had the most predictable of endings when California Chrome won the 140th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
It’s unusual for the favorite to win horse racing’s biggest race but...